1. Field
This application relates generally to wireless communication and more specifically, but not exclusively, to access control for an access point.
2. Introduction
A wireless communication network may be deployed over a defined geographical area to provide various types of services (e.g., voice, data, multimedia services, etc.) to users within that geographical area. In a typical implementation, access points (e.g., corresponding to different cells) are distributed throughout a network to provide wireless connectivity for access terminals (e.g., cell phones) that are operating within the geographical area served by the network.
As the demand for high-rate and multimedia data services rapidly grows, there lies a challenge to implement efficient and robust communication systems with enhanced performance. To supplement conventional network access points (e.g., macro access points), small-coverage access points may be deployed (e.g., installed in a user's home) to provide more robust indoor wireless coverage or other coverage for access terminals. Such small-coverage access points may be referred to as, for example, femto access points, femto cells, home NodeBs, home eNodeBs, or access point base stations. For convenience, small-coverage access points may be referred to as femto cells or femto access points in the discussion that follows.
Typically, a femto cell is connected to the Internet and the mobile operator's network via a DSL router or a cable modem. Hence, a femto cell uses an Internet connection and electricity supplied by the owner of the femto cell. In addition, in cases where a femto cell is connected to an owner's private network (e.g., a local area network), the femto cell may enable access terminals to access to that private network. In view of the above, a femto cell owner may wish to restrict which users (e.g., which access terminals) are allowed to access services through the femto cell.
In some implementations, access to a femto cell is controlled by means of an access control list. For example, a femto cell may be configured to only allow access terminals that are listed in the access control list for the femto cell to access a service through the femto cell.
Current techniques for adding an access terminal to an access control list tend to be somewhat complicated to implement and/or cumbersome for a femto cell owner to perform. For example, when a femto cell owner wishes to allow a subscriber (e.g., an access terminal owned by a subscriber) to access the femto cell, the femto cell owner may provide the phone number (e.g., a mobile directory number (MDN) or a mobile subscriber ISDN (MSISDN) number) of the subscriber to the network operator. This number may be provided, for example, via an interface provided by the operator (e.g., a web interface, a touch-tone dialing interface, or a customer service interface). The operator then maps the phone number to an identifier that the network uses to authenticate the access terminal. Such an identifier may take the form of, for example, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), Mobile Station Identifier (MSID), or Network Access Identifier (NAI), depending on the network technology. Once the corresponding identifier is determined, the network updates the access control list for the femto cell and pushes the updated access control list to the access control enforcement point for the femto cell. Thus, this technique involves a relatively complicated database lookup on the network side, and requires several steps to be performed by the femto cell owner. Moreover, the updated access control list may not take effect immediately since some delay may be incurred when the network pushes the updated access control list to the enforcement point. Thus, there is a need for more efficient techniques for enabling access terminals to obtain service from access points such as femto cells.